Calling for Backup
In the prison cave, Santini had lost his targets. He dug three feet into the ground, but found no trace of Ma Qiao or Vivi.
Hearing the clamor outside the cave, he quickly realized he might be surrounded.
But Santini wasn't worried in the slightest.
This third-rate Pirate Hunter den didn't have a single pair of Seastone Handcuffs or shackles, and the Marines who had come to take custody of the prisoners were a bunch of good-for-nothings.
It could be said that, until reinforcements arrived from the Marine Branch, he was invincible on this island.
Besides, he had a hostage of considerable standing in his hands!
"Damn it, where did that brat go? Big Brother Laqiuba's life is important, but so is the treasure!"
Still unwilling to give up, Santini broke several stalagmites in his attempt to find Ma Qiao and Vivi hiding somewhere.
Meanwhile, Santini still couldn't understand how that purple bald man had so easily found the treasure he had carefully hidden beforehand, after pretending to be captured that day.
Santini remembered that the purple bald man had simply raised a hand, and a strange cone of red light had appeared around him.
The red light was like a scanner, moving with him wherever he went.
The purple bald man had quickly found the treasure buried deep underground.
"What a useful ability!"
Santini decided that even if he couldn't get his treasure back, he would still get that purple bald man aboard his ship.
With a treasure-hunting secret technique like that, would he ever have to worry about finding treasure again?
Just as Santini was planning how to recruit him, he suddenly saw a figure swagger into the cave.
"Hunter brat, you dared to come back?"
Santini narrowed his eyes and got a good look at the newcomer.
Overjoyed, he burst out laughing. "I thought my treasure was gone without a trace, but it looks like you know what's good for you after all! Since you dared to come back, are you planning to return the treasure and beg me to spare your life? Or perhaps..."
Lieutenant Nezumi was like a plug-and-play power bank: Santini took him down from atop his head again.
Santini held Lieutenant Nezumi by the collar with his left hand and pointed his right hand, now in drill form, at his head. He sneered. "Or perhaps you've come to beg me to spare this lieutenant from the Marine G-2 Branch? Don't worry. As long as you agree to a few conditions, I guarantee I won't hurt him. First..."
"I refuse!"
Ma Qiao couldn't be bothered to listen and shook his head.
As he spoke, he pulled a knuckle-duster studded with iron nails from his pocket. Like a movie villain, he slipped it over his right hand with a snap and advanced on Santini and his hostage, step by step.
Ma Qiao hadn't lied to the Marines.
He was indeed an expert at negotiation and hostage rescue.
Specifically, Russian-style hostage rescue.
"Are you crazy?"
Lieutenant Nezumi shouted almost at the same time as Santini. "You damned commoner, don't you know that in this situation, ensuring my safety must be the top priority? Stop right there and do as this pirate says! Give him what he wants!"
Santini hurriedly added, "Brat, won't you at least hear my asking price? We can discuss the details! Send the Marines' negotiation expert in to talk to me!"
"No need for discussion. I'm the negotiation expert the Marines appointed, and my opinion is..."
Ma Qiao stepped forward, his crouched body springing open as he launched a punch straight at Santini's knee!
There was no helping it. Against an opponent over three meters tall, Ma Qiao's Monster Strength Vajra Punch could only reach his knee.
"Damn it, you're a lunatic!"
Santini dodged awkwardly and used the tip of his drill to bore a bloody hole in Lieutenant Nezumi's left shoulder. "Stop! I really will kill him!"
Lieutenant Nezumi howled in pain. Not daring to insult the great pirate who held his life in his hands, he cursed Ma Qiao instead. "Damn you, this is all your fault! It hurts like hell! When I get back, I'll ask the World Government to put a bounty on your head, you damned pirate! I'll execute you myself, you vermin!"
Ma Qiao couldn't be bothered with the noise. He simply looked down at the fist that had missed and let out a long sigh.
Sure enough, strength alone wasn't enough. Without accuracy, it was still hard to win single-handedly!
Ma Qiao felt that he needed to recruit a support with hard crowd control to assist him in the future.
Leona, Thresh, Pyke, and the like would all be excellent, but for now, he would have to make do with his old crew...
Ma Qiao was ready to call for backup.
So was Santini.
It wasn't that he thought he couldn't beat Ma Qiao. He was worried that the madman would take a desperate risk and threaten him by killing the hostage.
Lieutenant Nezumi, his hostage, had now become Santini's weak point, forcing him to look out for the lieutenant's safety.
"Boys, time to stretch your legs! Take that brat down!"
Santini swung both drill arms, but his targets weren't Ma Qiao. They were the other iron cages.
Metal snapped with a crisp ring, and the cages forged from refined iron all broke apart.
Three officers of the Driller Pirates who had deliberately allowed themselves to be captured alongside Santini, as well as thirty or forty unaffiliated pirates from other crews, all broke free with wild cries.
They might not have been notorious great pirates, but to have caught the Pirate Hunters' attention and been locked up here, they were at least vicious criminals with bounties on their heads.
Among wanted criminals, there were wronged people like Robin, maliciously targeted by the World Government; warriors like the Fish-Man Fisher Tiger, who resisted the tyranny of the Celestial Dragons; and adventurers like the Rumbar Pirates, Brook's crew, who sailed purely in pursuit of their dreams. But statistically speaking, the vast majority of wanted criminals deserved their punishment.
The pirates in the Ring Finger prison were criminals to a man, guilty of robbery, murder, and arson!
"Captain Santini, once we've chopped this brat into pieces, please be sure to take us in!" The unaffiliated pirates declared their allegiance to Santini one after another.
A powerful Devil Fruit User was indeed someone worth following.
Santini laughed heartily. "Don't worry! I've already demonstrated my strength. Before long, I'll be a great pirate with a bounty of at least fifteen million Beli! How could I live up to my great reputation without a hundred men under me?"
"Captain Santini is invincible!"
The escaped pirates' morale soared. They flexed their wrists, eager to show off their fighting prowess before their new captain.
They picked up the metal bars scattered across the ground as weapons and advanced on Ma Qiao with vicious grins.
Faced with the villains, Ma Qiao remained unmoved. He took a dragon-shaped firework from his pocket and planted it in the ground.
"Idiot, is that a signal flare for help? We're inside a cave..."
The pirates stopped speaking midsentence and rubbed their eyes.
The dragon-shaped rocket, clearly visible just moments ago, was slowly disappearing before their eyes.
"What the hell is that?" they cried in surprise. "Brat, are you a magician?"
"Magic tricks? That's way too sunny... Maybe I'll learn them someday?"
Ma Qiao shook his head, wearing an expression that said the past was too painful to revisit. "This is the Dragon Slayer Ward, a little souvenir I kept after spending an entire month's salary on it."
Rolling for skins was a curse...
Fortunately, the Dragon Slayer Ward did look just a tiny bit cool!
The money was worth it!
"Hasagi!"
The pirates naturally had no idea why Ma Qiao's face twisted one moment and lit up with happiness the next, and they understood even less what he meant by spending money on a game. All they saw was the strange rocket reappearing on the ground as red, yellow, and blue columns of light flared up.
The three colors spun faster and faster around the Dragon Slayer Ward. Soon, three figures of very different builds appeared within the glow.
"Might of Demacia, Garen!"
"Ashe, the Frost Archer!"
"Ryze, the Rune Mage!"
"We've arrived!"
[Summoner Skill: Teleport] activated...